Selfie time!

I need your help! My book will be published in March next year, but I would love some selfies of people at work to use in the book. I am interested in showing the variety of work that people do. I will also ask you to describe how your Christian faith impacts on the way you do your work. How do you worship God through your work? Just one or two sentences will do. Email me to send your photo, first name, your job and a brief description of your faith expression at work. I will post some examples as they come through. Have fun people!

Who am I?

I am a Project Leader with Seed (seed.org.au), Mentor Educator with the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (Victoria), MBA Curriculum Developer with Excelsia College, and was formerly Associate Dean of the Marketplace Institute at Ridley College in Melbourne. I have worked in media and communications, human resources, business analysis and policy development roles, in a variety of organisations, and as a consultant. I was Director of the School of Christian Studies for three years and have lectured with the Brisbane School of Theology, Macquarie Christian Studies Institute and Wesley Institute. I have a particular passion for integrating our Christian faith and work, as well as helping churches connect with the workers in their congregations. I am married to David, and we have two amazing adult children: Jaslyn and Guy. I am currently under contract to write a two-volume exploration of Workship: how we can worship God through our work.

All of life worship

These lyrics are appropriate to think about your working this week.

The Time Has Come
Hillsong United

Found love beyond all reason
You gave Your life, you're all for me
And called me yours forever
Caught in the mercy fallout
I found hope found life
Found all I need
Cause you're all I need
The time has come
To stand for all we believe in
So I for one am gonna
Give my praise to You
Today today it's all or nothing
All the way
The praise goes out to you
Yeah all the praise goes out to you
Today today I live for one thing
To give You praise
In everything I do
Yeah all the praise goes out to you
Found love beyond all reason
You gave Your life, you're all for me
And called me yours forever
Caught in the mercy fallout
I found hope found life
Found all I need
Cause you're all I need

Excerpt from 'Workship': a faith crisis at work

There I was, the opportunity of a lifetime! I was offered my dream job: television reporter for a brand new regional station on the south coast of Sydney. All the university study, the freelance work, the hospitality jobs to help pay the bills, the hundreds of applications… Finally, it all paid off.
I was pretty green as a reporter. Most of what I had learnt was in a lecture room. I had managed to get several stories published, and worked in several radio stations, but the demands of TV reporting were completely different.

There was the difficulty of putting a complex story into a two-minute story, the pressure to come up with 3–4 stories a day, and the difficulty of having to work with others. Then there was the culture of the newsroom. All the stress led to a work culture that was defined by heavy alcohol drinking, lots of swearing and coarse joking to let off steam, and a lot of competition and conflict.
As a young Christian, this was a difficult environment to work in. I felt very underprepared. What was a faith response to this alien world of work?

  • Some Christians told me to be good, not to be impacted by what I saw or heard or experienced.
  • Some told me to look for any opportunity to share the Gospel.
  • Some told me my duty was to use my position to do stories about Christians or the church.
  • Some told me to keep my head down and pray.
  • Some told me that faith was only for Sundays.

I tried to get my pastor to help me, but he had difficulty understanding or engaging with my world of work. The teaching on Sunday was about spiritual matters rather than everyday issues. The application was usually confined to four options: pray more, read my Bible more, evangelise more, and/or do more things at church.
In my heart I knew this was unsustainable. It felt like a double-life, and it was impacting on my relationship with God, and with others.
I was living a life that was not integrating faith and work. I was dis-integrating!
I had to learn how to combine my faith and my working; to put my faith to work, and to work at my faith.

I had to learn how to worship God through my work.
(From the Preface of *Workship*)
 

Why Workship?

You may be wondering why the title: Workship? I have had many people advise me not to use that title because it is a made up word, or even because it seems to bring work into worship. 
However, I really like what it says and what it does. As you will learn in the introduction, the Hebrew root for work is also the root for service, particularly serving God in worship. I believe the two activities are meant to be integrated. Our work should be done in a way that honours God, which serves God and others, that worships God. By combining the two English words: work and worship, I hope to challenge people to integrate their faith and work.